Page 75 of The Sinner's Bargain

A toy with no voice.

Would Thoran give me to him, though? Father had been so confident in his claim. He had strategically used the connection to make an important statement. It would have been a strange and foolish thing to lie about.

Friends.

Best friends.

It made no sense. No matter how I tried to fit the pieces.

“Blue?”

I glanced away from the heap of fluffy, golden eggs to the man watching me with that unwavering scrutiny.

It killed me that I couldn’t tell him my name. It burned in my gut how badly I ached to hear him say it in that melodious voice of his, especially when he was standing so close.

His arms holding me against him.

His lips on my cheek.

I yearned to hear it roll off his tongue when he was looking at me as if I were the most magical thing he’d ever seen.

I returned my attention to my plate. A tremor shook my finger when I reached for the fork and speared a morsel of egg on the prong. I could feel his eyes on me as I brought it to my lips.

“Good girl,” he praised quietly when I chewed and swallowed. “All of it now.”

Mother always said men hated women who made pigs of themselves at the table. Women who ate were unappealing to watch. So, why did Thoran keep making me eat? He seemed so invested in my food intake. I didn’t understand, but I knew he was serious when he’d made his threat.

While the idea of sitting in his lap again did appeal to me on a level that mortified me, I wasn’t sure I could eat while doing it.

“That’s fine,” Thoran was saying when I dragged my thoughts back to the conversation. “We’ll discuss it later.”

Whatever it was, Vance wasn’t thrilled about the answer. If his lips pinched any harder, it would be a straight, white line.

“We have documents for the new club, and several order matters that require your attention immediately. As in straight after breakfast.”

Thoran’s gaze shifted to me, and I realized he didn’t want to leave me alone.

“I’m fine,” I said. “I can read in my room. I won’t get in anyone’s way.”

“Excellent. Now that that is settled, we can get some actual work done, especially if we’re going to focus on what we discussed last night.”

Muscles coiled in Thoran’s cheek. A bundled of restless nerves that mirrored the cold, hard glint in his eyes.

It made me wonder what could possibly have him so angry, but couldn’t find the nerve to ask. So, I said nothing as I turned my attention to the plate of waffles heaped on my plate.

After breakfast, Thoran walked me to the office to get my book then upstairs. But he didn’t take me to my room. He kept going until we stood at his doors.

“My windows are bigger,” he said, and a flutter in my stomach erupted.

“They are,” I agreed, excited for the chance to sit with those windows and that view and read. “But are you sure?”

His answer was to open the door and lead me inside the warm, dim space that smelled of him.

I immediately went to the center glass and peered out at the dark ripples of water churning under the violent winds. Bare branches cracked together, tangling and yanking on each other as if fighting. The world was a flurry of chaos while I stood still and quiet in its wake with my book to my chest.

“I will never get tired of this view,” I whispered to the man coming up behind me.

Coils of muscle settled against my back. Rough palms pinned my hips. I was trapped between a raging inferno of his masculine heat and the chaotic storm that chilled my nipples into hard points against the lace of my bra.

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